Nokia undoubtedly has an upward battle on its hands, as the company is still trying to reach the same pinnacle of its glory days. With the recent introduction of its flagship smartphone, the 41-megapixel PureView camera packing Nokia Lumia 1020, it seems to have a good chance at bringing down the mighty iPhone 5 to its knees. Although it might seem like an insurmountable task to achieve, especially when past Lumia smartphones failed to make a massive dent in the market to meet the level of its esteemed rivals, this one is arguably the best of the best that Nokia can deliver at the moment – even more when its camera alone is so far out there versus everything else.

Design:

Let’s get down and dirty with it folks, these two beloved smartphones employ the characteristic design elements that we all know and love from their respective lines. The Lumia 1020 looks similarly to past flagship Nokias, while the iPhone 5 looks like, well, an iPhone. Between the two, we can’t argue about how Apple’s pride and joy is the easier device to handle, since it’s both lighter in weight and skinnier in frame than its rival. It’s not to say that the Lumia 1020 is bad, but the hump in the rear where its camera is housed, makes for some awkwardness when it’s being held. Needless to say, the construction is fantastic with both, but there’s that sense of premium attached to the iPhone 5’s brushed aluminum casing.

The construction of both devices is great, but the iPhone 5’s aluminum casing has that premium feel

Display:

Technically speaking, the Lumia 1020 has a 4.5-inch PureMotion HD+ 768 x 1280 display with ClearBlack AMOLED. The iPhone 5 has 4-inch Retina Display, with a resolution of 640 x 1136 pixels. To tell you the truth, their displays are sharp and detailed enough to distinguish even the finest of text in a zoomed out view in the web browser. However, the Retina Display of the iPhone 5 produces the more realistic colors and offers better visibly outdoors, mainly because its display utilizes IPS-LCD technology. In contrast, the Lumia 1020’s display is still an attractive one, especially when it has that iridescent glow with its saturated color reproduction. Something that’ll prove to be useful come winter, the sensitivity of the Lumia 1020’s display will be appreciated by those people who want to keep their digits frozen-free, as it allows to be used with winter gloves.

The Nokia Lumia 1020 is on the left while the iPhone 5 is on the right

The CIE 1931 xy color gamut chart represents the set (area) of colors that a display can reproduce, with the sRGB colorspace (the highlighted triangle) serving as reference. The chart also provides a visual representation of a display's color accuracy. The small squares across the boundaries of the triangle are the reference points for the various colors, while the small dots are the actual measurements. Ideally, each dot should be positioned on top of its respective square. The 'x: CIE31' and 'y: CIE31' values in the table below the chart indicate the position of each measurement on the chart. 'Y' shows the luminance (in nits) of each measured color, while 'Target Y' is the desired luminance level for that color. Finally, 'ΔE 2000' is the Delta E value of the measured color. Delta E values of below 2 are ideal.

The Color accuracy chart gives an idea of how close a display's measured colors are to their referential values. The first line holds the measured (actual) colors, while the second line holds the reference (target) colors. The closer the actual colors are to the target ones, the better.

The Grayscale accuracy chart shows whether a display has a correct white balance (balance between red, green and blue) across different levels of grey (from dark to bright). The closer the Actual colors are to the Target ones, the better.

55 Comments

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Any logical person with cell phone knowledge reads all of Pa s phone reviews with a grsin of salt...you are all biased towards apple....prob all you have iphones from 07 to now which clouds your knowledge from the start

Well John says that the lumia is better or equal in all except apps.
But then at the end suddenly the only thing that speaks for the lumia is the camera, and how the iphone is a much better all around phone.

I think it's more a problem that Apple releases 1 phone a year. The IP5 still the newest phone they make, and it still costs $300 for the 32GB version. I'd say it is still fair to compare them. What are you supposed to stop comparing against the IP5 once it gets 4-6 months old?

12.papss (unregistered)

I just got my l1020 last night.. Too soon to give my thoughts but the camera is amazing and l don't think its awkward to hold. John must have small sissy hands. I get cramps holding the tiny iPhone my wife has.

Dude you're drunk!!!! You call iPhone 5 a beautiful DESIGN!!!! My parrot can design it better! It's just a longer iPhone 4! Apple doesn't even know what DESIGN is!!! Microsoft and Windows Phone rule and will rule the world forever! No one can compete with Microsoft's eco-system!

PA, the Nokia 1020 are 5MP images and the iPhone 5 are 8MP images. So, if you want to make a fair comparison on sharpness, you should first downsample the 8mp shots from the iphone to 5mp. Or (even better) start from the 41mp raw image and downsample it to 8mp. PA is great for news, but comparisons and reviews are so superficial...

I disagree. you're comparing the output from both devices as they are produced. IP5 produces 8MP images, so use that to compare. 1020 takes a 38Mp image and shrinks it to 5Mp. Don't mess with the results produced by the camera. If you want to compare the original 38MP against the 8Mp of the IP5, that's fair as well. Though I've read that the 5MP image looks better than the 38MP.

if we exclude the apps and games that ios boasts of, then m really sorry but lumia is the clear winner. Better and bigger display then ios , refreshing windows o.s with nokia,s customised apps, malware free, hulk body, sexy and astounding design, available in different colors and so many other plus points( n m nt counting camera). Yeeh and i read p.a,s comparison of nokia vid other manufacturers vid a pinch of salt. Cos its always biased towards iphn and samsung......

Its funny how These Nokia Fandows Bash Samsung Innovative Phones (specially the S3-S4) and the iPhone. Hello, iPhone 4S, iPhone 5 Samsung S3 and the Amazing Samsung S4 are the Top picked and advanced smart phones. Not only that Samsung and Apple are the top 2 companies battling for number 1 but they are just WAY WAY Better than any Nokiass Windows phone. Come on, Glory days of Nokiass has gone. And Samsung rules nowadays and for the next 20 years. Nokia? Oooops . i wonder what will happen to Nokia After 2 years from now, probably shut down. hahahaha

Nah Apple and Samsung are not top picks.
The just pay a lot more "roayalty"or whatever you would like to call it to review sites like those and has been doings so for quite some time.

And since people read reviews and listen to (sammy+apple-bribed) sales people (who knows nothingabout nothing, they just sell what they NEED to sell) and they have read all thos BS reviews of course the money goes to Sammy or Apples pocket which gives them even more "royalty money"

Nokia spends their money on devlopment, patents and their product (even if they wanted to do the same thing they dont have that kind of money after they messed upp in the early smartphone race staying with symbian) so if you want to pay for the product (Nokia) or "comercial"/"sellers pockets"(Samsung&iPhone) is up to You sir ;)

Camera, build quality, hardware and ultra sensitive display are good on Lumia... iPhone wins in the rest of the departments because MS has given up on developing for Windows Phone OS... Lumias can be all around better phones only if MS can pick their game up...

Just got back from the AT&T store to play with the Lumia 1020. Holy cow, is it great. Makes my Lumia 925 seem like an iPhail or Galagsy in comparison, except in thickness. It is about the same thickness (to my eye) as my Lumia 900 with its silicone case on it, that is. Wow wow wow wow wow! T-Mobile should really have tried to get this baby. I had to wait in an informal line to play with it and there were others waiting behind me! Although the signage was large, it wasn't attention-grabbing, sadly, and the phone was on the same wall as the door, so it wasn't immediately obvious where it was upon walking in, but being a smaller store, it wasn't hard to locate.
did have a couple of items to use with the camera, notably a small model of folks with a hot air balloon, and a neat box with a spinner on top to mimic different times of day to demonstrate the phone's low-light photography mastery. Needless to say, it looked stunningly good, AND put my lovely Lumia 925 to shame. Seriously, you don't know how good it is until you try it.

I was always nokia fan started with 3510i, continued with 3210 classic, but when i got my first samsung GT-I5800 (Galaxy 3 [no S3]) have become android and samsung fan. then i bought used nokia n9 for 150€, its was super-amazing phone, its camera is amazing. Then my nokia started dieing, then i bought cheap Mediatek based android phone, but now i am going to buy that lumia.

(I write this as Linux user, and developer, on PC i do not prefer Windows and Microsoft products)

1. Android phones is good for customizers. It less secure than iOS or WP (yes thats suprising from microsoft, but its true)
2. iOS (iphones/ipads/...) from apple is good for people who likes rock solid and stable OS, with elegant, fresh and very simple usage. And it very secure
3. WP is in some way also good choice for people who like to do little customization with keeping OS simplicity, its also elegant in its own way. In WP8.1 is lot of changes that make is more great. And its secure, everything is running in sandbox that makes nearly impossible to harm system or other apps, and it can run apps theoretically only from Store.

Camera of iPhone 5/s/c and also other iphones, is designed like whole operating system, make awsome photo without any requriment to do configurations. Unlock, Start app, aim, shot.

Nokia and microsoft is trying to do balance between simplicity and going pro. You can Push camera button, aim, shot and the Picture will be awesome. But you can also do many configurations to make even better photos (in case of 1020 or 808).

Both phones is super awesome, both are designed for 2 types of people. Its like difference between chopper and sport motorcycle. Its two different worlds.

This article is perfect because its comparing parameters and in some way the user experience. I dont feel from article that author is Apple or Nokia fan.

and now let me take a selfie

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